Paper short abstract:

MANENBERG is a coming-of-age story set in post-apartheid South Africa. The intimate documentary follows Fazline and Warren, two young 'Cape Coloureds', as they struggle to create a meaningful life in an extremely challenging environment.

Paper long abstract:

Do you remember where you were on your 21st birthday? What was on your mind back then? Where were you headed? What was holding you back?

MANENBERG is an intimate portrait of Fazline and Warren, two young 'Cape Coloureds', coming-of-age in a worn-down and overpopulated ghetto-area constructed outside Cape Town during the apartheid-regime to house coloured families with low incomes. Here, 'children have children' and the chances of becoming a gangster are greater than the chances of creating something new in the ruins of the past - but Manenberg is also an area with strong ties between the inhabitants in the claustrophobic houses.

The film raises familiar questions about poverty and power, through the voices and experiences of two young people born into an uncompromising world. One of the most piercing questions of the film is about the power of place in determining oneʼs future.

MANENBERG is a film about hardship, hope and the human capacity for forgiveness.

MANENBERG is the debut documentary film by directors and anthropologists Karen Waltorp & Christian Vium, who have lived and done extensive research in Manenberg between 2005 and 2009.

Awards / Prizes :

Royal Anthropological Institute International Festival of Ethnographic Institute 2011 (UK) - The Basil Wright Film Prize

Auburn International Film Festival 2011 (AU) - Bluebell Award : Best Film of the Festival

Nordic Panorama 2011 (DK) - Best Film in the New Nordic Voices competition

Tri Continental Film Festival 2011(SA) - Best Documentary

Zanzibar International Film Festival 2011 (TZ) - Honorable Mention for a feature documentary